Honest To Blog
I’ve noticed a theme recently in the blog world. Maybe it’s a trend that just started, maybe it’s something that I’m just starting to notice because I feel the same way.
It’s honesty. I posted about authenticity in the blog world a while back. For a long time, I felt like I couldn’t be honest on my own blog, because I had built up an impossible standard for myself in the eyes of my readers, and felt like I would lose that if I was truthful about how I was really doing.
For some reason, the bloggers that get really big, that always get the most enthusiastic comments, that have a whole swarm of readers, are the ones that seem perfect. They’re the ones that seem to have an absolutely perfect life, skipping from one fun activity to the next, with nothing that ever seems to drag them down.
But recently, I’ve noticed that I’m not really reading those blogs anymore. Sure, I’ll scan through their fun day out pictures, but that’s really it. I spend more time reading and responding to blogs that are truthful about their struggles, truthful that they might not have everything together. I feel much closer to bloggers that don’t seem to have this perfect, unshakable facade.
And I feel like I’ve been seeing more and more of that recently. Maybe it’s the new year, maybe it’s just a trend in blogging—bloggers are getting more honest. They’re sharing when they’re struggling, or when things aren’t as perfect as they’d like them to be. They’re sharing when they have doubts. They’re also sharing that there are parts of their lives they don’t share. That they aren’t going to lug their camera to a restaurant and spend half the night taking pictures at their sister’s birthday party if they don’t want to, just so they have something to blog about. They’re sharing that sometimes they don’t have anything to say, and that authenticity does not necessarily mean consistency.
I fell in love with Little Chief Honeybee’s Honest To Blog feature. Every week, she posts something she’s been thinking about, something she’s struggling with, or some opinion that she holds—and then hits publish without editing. Without going back and correcting any of her grammar mistakes, or softening an opinion to not offend someone.
Without diluting the honesty of the post.
And I absolutely adore that idea. She said she wouldn’t mind if readers started their own Honest to Blog features…so here I am, starting my own. It may not be every week, because honestly, I don’t know if I’ll have something honest to say every week. But there will be more than a few of them.
Here is my first Honest to Blog post.
And, just for your reading pleasure, here are some of my very favorite honest-to-goodness posts that I’ve read:
1. Reckless Truth Telling
From Momastery
2. No More Apologies
From Casey Leigh
3. Without Self-Love I Have Nothing
From Oh She Glows
4. Reality
From Young People In Love
5. Ulterior Motives
From Little Chief Honey Bee
6. My Decision
From Busy Bee Lauren
7. Not Quite Sure How To Put This
From Finding Thin Again
